Editing Age of Dragons: Chimerical Dragons

The Chimericals have greater things on their mind than the mere physical world. The Mother Goddess gave them mental sight into ''Dreaming Madness'', and this gift and curse guides every aspect of their life and society.

*'''Soma 40'''

*'''Sophia 60'''

*'''Pneuma 50'''

'''New face for a new day''' - Chimerical Dragons can, after a full nights sleep, replace one Edge they have with another Edge from the same lifepath. This change is "permanent", lasting unless the Chimerical uses this Birthright again to change that Edge again.

'''Dreamweaving''' - Chimerical Dragons sometimes turn up with unusual resources in their possession, such as new spells, unusual equipment, mortal followers, island lairs, etc. They can't account for how they came to possess these things - they just turn up, as if in a dream. The GM sets how and when these bonus resources turn up. Of course, any resources gained in this way can also disappear just as easily.

'''The Fractured Mind''' - Chimericals are at the mercy of madness, and at any one time will have at least one compulsion, hallucination or delusion which they cannot resist or deny. This is usually set in collaboration between the player and the GM, but should resonate with the current circumstances in some way. If more than one Chimerical is in the same vicinity, they generally share the same madness. Madnesses can change at any time, lasting anything from a few minutes to a few years, but a Chimerical is never without insanity of one sort or another.

'''Fated''' - If you are using the default metaplot, the Chimerical Breed as a whole has a major world-changing event ahead of it that will happen inevitably on a certain date, and beyond player control. Players who select this Breed should be aware that the metaplot has this surprise in store and that they won't be able to do anything about it.

'''Chimerical Dragons''' are rainbow-scaled, with each scale shifting in colour according to how the light falls on it, giving them a shifting irridescent appearance when viewed as a whole. Their entire appearance tends towards the ethereal, with fey thin limbs, enigmatic multi-coloured eyes and gossamer-like wing membranes. Other breeds often joke and comment that the appearance of the Chimericals is such that one expects them to blow away at the next strong breeze, or fade away when the sun next rises. They are oft-named as the Dragons of Dream, as they seem so ephemeral.  

The Chimericals lair themselves at the ''Dream Archipelago'' and the ''Dream Isles'' that lie just beyond the Solar Coast, and just short of the territory of the Storm Dragons. This territory is one that exists and does not exist at the same time - sometimes it is easy to find, and at others it seems to vanish from the coastline altogether. They have no society as such, as they believe that they are themselves nothing but fragments of a dream.

Chimericals can sometimes be found beyond their island homes, but this is a rarity, and there are not always clear reasons why they travel. They are infuriatingly enigmatic, and seemingly disinterested in the affairs of the world.

Despite this, those who have made it to the islands often describe that the Chimericals appear to have an advanced society and culture. They describe vast stepped pyramids amidst jungle covered islands, cities made of gold and glass, and huge temple structures that seem like they ought to be impossible to construct. There are mortal races their too, though they are also limited to the isles and seem as enigmatic as the dragons there. Some visitors have reported nothing but savage tribes of humans, others have described lizardman emperors, birdman sorcerors and other strangenesses.

To the Chimericals, the strangeness of their home is perfectly normal. The world is just a dream, they say, why should it make sense?

It often surprises other breeds to discover that the Chimericals are fiercely intellectual, and that to be a [[Age of Dragons: Scholar-Sage|Scholar-Sage]] is a common goal. The Chimericals seek to make sense out of the madness that surrounds them, even as they accept it, and many recognise that knowledge and lore provide the answers. The ''Children of the Feathered Serpent'' collect lore and information of all sorts, from arcane spells to seemingly useless tidbits of information. The ''Cartographers of the Unmappable Realm'' are prophets and historians, and students of the "tides of lucidity" that represent their breeds communal madnesses.

Other Lifepaths are sometimes followed by Chimericals, but it often seems as if they are simply studying the way of life rather than properly engaging in it, and their emphasis is always on the collection of knowledge. For example, a Chimerical who takes to a life of trading will trade goods for lore, and lore for goods.  

The Chimericals don't believe that they have to (or are able to) understand the dream world that is reality, but they understand that they have to seek to do so to even exist.